Youth Initiatives of the IGF are created with a goal of encouraging and involving young people in a substantive discussion on Internet governance. These forms, as well as the national, sub-regional and regional IGFs (NRIs), are expected to follow the main IGF principles of being open, inclusive, non-commercial with multistakeholder participation during the whole preparatory phase and the event itself, all in line with a bottom-up decision-making process.
Besides these initiatives listed below, there are other examples of youth engagement at the IGF and in Internet governance, as described
this publication on Youth Engagement at the IGF
The publication outlines the Youth IGF initiatives established on national and/or regional levels; as well as some capacity development initiatives.
Regarding different forms of Youth engagement in the IGF processes, the IGF Secretariat recognizes the following practices:
- Youth IGF initiatives (that can be independently organized; or integrated into the NRIs). For these, a recognition process is conducted in the basis of the Youth IGFs adhering to the core IGF principles and procedures, just as the NRIs.
- Additional projects to build youth participation in Internet governance
Below table shows the current record of the existing Youth Initiatives.